ealousy over his attentions to the dancer, he took a
house adjoining my own--on the borders of the most unfrequented part of
the common at Wimbledon--established himself and Zuilika there, and
brought the woman Anita home to live with them. From that period matters
went from bad to worse. Evidently having tired of the stage, both
Ulchester and Anita abandoned it, and turned the house into a sort of
club where gambling was carried on to a disgraceful extent. Broken
hearted over the treatment she was receiving, Zuilika appealed to me and
to my son to help her in her distress, to devise some plan to break the
spell of Ulchester's madness and to get that woman out of the house. It
was then that I first beheld her face. In her excitement she managed,
somehow, to snap or loosen the fastening which held her yashmak. It
fell, and let my son realize, as I realized, how wondrously beautiful it
is possible for the human face to be!"

"Steady, Major, steady! I can quite understand your feelings, can
realize better than most men!" said Cleek with a sort of sigh. "You
looked into heaven, and--well, what then? Let's have the rest of the
story."

"I think my son must have put it into her head to give Ulchester a taste
of his own medicine, to attempt to excite his jealousy by pretending to
find interests elsewhere. At any rate, she began to show him a great
deal of attention, or, at least, so he says, although I never saw it.
All I know is that she--she--well, sir, she deliberately led _me_ on
until I was half insane over her, and--that's all!"

"What do you mean by 'that's all'? The matter couldn't possibly have
ended there, or else why this appeal to me?"

"It ended for me, so far as her affectionate treatment of me was
concerned; for in the midst of it the unexpected happened. Her father
died, forgiving her, as Ulchester had hoped, but doing more than his
wildest dreams could have given him cause to imagine possible. In a
word, sir, the caliph not only bestowed his entire earthly possessions
upon her, but had them conveyed to England by trusted allies and placed
in her hands. There were coffers of gold pieces, jewels of fabulous
value, sufficient, when converted into English money, as they were
within the week, and deposited to her credit in the Bank of England, to
make her the sole possessor of nearly three million pounds."

"Phew!" whistled Cleek. "When these Orientals do it they certainly do it
properly. That's what you might